Package of plurality of cartons and method of packaging



S. P. BAIRD April 13, 1954 PACKAGE OF PLURALITY OF CARTONS AND METHOD OF PACKAGING Filed Oct. 20, 1949 INVENTOR. JAMUEL 1 .Bfl RD Patented Apr. 13, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PACKAGE OF PLURALITY OF CARTONS AND METHOD OF PACKAGING Samuel P. Baird, Akron, Ohio Applicationoctober 20, 1949, Serial No. 122,382

3 Claims. 206-65) 1 This invention relates to an improved package and improved method of packaging.

The package is rectangular. It is formed with eight separate one-piece corner covers, one at each of the eight corners of the package. The

eight covers are held in fixed relation to each other or to the contents of the package by suitable means which ties the whole together. The contents of the package may be a single rectangular object (which may itself be a package) or a plurality of objects, e. g., small cartons or packages, etc., or articles such as slabs, etc. which are protected and held together in rectangular arrangement by the covers and tie means.

Each of the covers is stiff and shell-like. It has three mutually perpendicular sides which form the corner. The covers are preferably all of the same dimensions and are either identical or the reverse of one another as a left-hand glove is the reverse of a right-hand glove.

, The corner covers may be formed of stiff fibrous sheet material, metal, plastic, etc. They are preferably formed from a fiat rectangular piece of corrugated board or other synthetic fibrous sheet one corner of which has been cut away along lines parallel to the edges of the sheet. The sides of the covers are folded up along continuations of those lines, and the cut edges of the folded sheets are taped together. The folds and all edges of the corner covers are preferably parallel to or perpendicular to one another.

The packages made from corner covers are designed for shipping rectangular objects of many different sizes, and objects which may be arranged into larger or smaller rectangular masses. If the shipper is handling packages of only one size, or only a few sizes he can easily and economically have cartons built in which he can ship a definite number of the packages, such as a dozen or a hundred, etc. But if packages of many different sizes are being handled it is very costly to purchase and stock cartons of the many different sizes required for packaging diiferent numbers of each of these.

Many shippers who would require cartons of a great number of sizes for the shipment of a relatively small number of each of many different sized packages, have found it more economical to use wood boxes for such shipments because standard sizes of lumber can be made into boxes of any desired sizes in their own box shops. Such goods can be shipped in corner covers, as described herein, much more economically than in woodboxes. The use of the corner covers results in several savings: The corner covers are them to one another.

2 of themselves cheaper than the wood boxes. They are lighter in weight so the land freight charges are less. Their cubage is twenty-five percent to forty percent lower than for a wood box of the same inside dimensions, and this results in lower ocean freight charges. Furthermore, corner covers of any given size will make packages of a wide variety of sizes and three or four sizes of corner covers will make all the sizes usually required from the smallest to the largest; consequently, the shipper can buy in quantity and take advantage of the lower prices which prevail for quantity purchases, particularly because no serious storage problem is involved. The shipper who does not have sufficient volume to justify maintaining a box shop will save proportionately more by quantity buying than the shipper who now maintains a box shop. Using eight corner covers as contemplated b this invention, any numberof objects or packages of many different sizes which can be arranged into a rectangular mass, can be packaged equally well. The dimensions of the individual objects, and the over-all dimensions of the rectangular mass may vary widely, and yet all may be easilypackaged in the same eight corners. Thus the size of the package is in no respect predetermined (except by the size of the corner covers used), but is infinitely variable in all three dimensions. If the material to be packaged is rigid, the tie means may either unite the corner covers to one another or hold them to the contents of the package. If it is desirable to permit movement of the overlapping portions of the corner covers over one another so that the package can be flexed, the tie means will hold the corner covers to the package rather than secure The corner covers may be fastened to one another by staples, paper or cloth adhesive tapes, glue, etc. They may be held to the contents of the package by steel tapes, cords, wires, paper-wrapped tapes, etc.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one of the onepiece corner covers;

Fig. 2 is a view of a sheet of fibrous material which may be folded into a corner cover;

Figs. 3 and 4 are views in perspective showing successive steps in forming a package around a stack of smaller cartons;

Fig. 5 is a view in perspective of the finished package with all of the corner covers tied in place;

Fig. 6 is a view of a package of a diiierent size partially assembled from corner covers identical to those used in forming the package shown in Fig.

Fig. 7 illustrates a shallow package using corner covers of the same dimensions, some of which are opposites of others; and

Fig. 8 illustrates the bottom four corner covers (partly broken away) fastened together with glue before the material to be packaged is placed into them.

The corner cover I shown in Fig. 1 is typical of the eight covers required; to form a package. It is composed of three flat sides, 3,. 4 and. 5; which converge to the corner 6 and are mutually perpendicular to one another.

Preferably these corner covers are formed from a flat rectangular sheet of stiff packaging material. As shown in Fig. 2, the cover is preferably formed by stamping or otherwise cutting the area 1 out of the fiat sheet. Area I is cut away along lines 8 and 9 which are parallel with the sides of the rectangular sheet. The sheet is then scored along the lines In and II which are continuations of lines 8 and 9 respectively. This divides the sheet into three areas 3, 4, and 5 which form the sides of the cover when it is assembled as shown in Fig. 1.

To shape the corner covers the sides 4 and 5 are bent upward along the lines It and II] respectively until they are perpendicular to the square area 3, thereby bringing the edges 8 and 9 together. The tape I2 (Fig. 1) is then laid along the corner formed by the junction of edges 8 and 9 to hold the corner cover in its proper shape. Where feasible, the manufacturer of the corner covers will ship them as shown in Fig. 2, as this is the most economical form in which to ship them. Alternatively, they may be assembled by their manufacturer and shipped i and stored in nested condition.

To package a number of small cartons I5 (Fig. 3) with these corner covers the cartons may be stacked into a rectangular mass. One corner cover I may be placed on each of the four top corners, the whole inverted, and one corner cover placed on each of'the other four corners. Alternatively, four of the corner covers I may first be arranged with their sides overlapping but spread out to cover an area a little larger than the area of the bottom of the final package; the cartons will be stacked in a rectangular mass inside this, and then the corner covers may be shifted together until they are snug against the stack of cartons I5. If the size of a package can be predetermined, the four bottom corners may be stapled or otherwise fastened together before putting the contents of the package into them. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the other four top corners of the stack of cartons will then be covered with corner covers I. other ways of assembling the package may be devised.

In Fig. 4, the edges of the square areas 3 of the corner covers are identified by the numeral l5 and the short edges of the rectangular areas d and 5 are identified by the numeral I1. The edges l t of the single top corner cover shown in Fig. 4 are in line with the edges ll of the corner covers under the stack. When the upper corner at the near edge of the stack is covered with its corner cover, its edges I6 will be in line with the edges ll of the corner cover which covers the bottom corner of the near edge of the stack. This is desirable because it brings the edges I6 and Il exposed on the four sides of 4 the package in line with one another, as indicated in Fig. 5. If, in assembling the top, the near corner cover had been placed before the far corner cover (which latter is shown in place in Fig. 4), the exposed edges I6 and I1 would not be in line with one another. It may be desirable to have the edges I6 and I! in line with one another on all six sides of the package, to facilitate tying the pieces together.

The finished package is shown in Fig. 5 and it can be seen that each side of each cover is overlapped by each of the corners adjacent it. The covers I are drawn up snug around the stack of. cartons. I5 and held securely together by the steel shipping bands i8, which extend lengthwise and crosswise, respectively, around the center portion of the package.

Corner covers I identical with those used in forming the package of Fig. 5 are shown in Fig. 6. They package cartons 22 which are of a different size than the cartons I5 of Figs. 3 and 4, and are stacked into a rectangular mass of smaller size than that in which cartons I5 were stacked. The covers I are placed on the corners of the stack of cartons in any suitable manner, but in this package the sides of the covers overlap each other more than in the package of Fig. 5, because the package is smaller. If the mass to be packaged were stacked into a larger rectangular mass than is shown in either Fig. 3 or Fig. 6, then obviously the sides of the covers would overlap each other to a less extent. It is apparent therefore that the same corner covers can be used for packaging rectangular masses of many different sizes. The protective rectangular shell formed by an assembly of these corner covers may be expanded or contracted in length, width and depth.

The area 3 of a corner cover need not be square. Those in which the area 3 is square are satisfactory for packaging a mass that is up to about sixty percent longer than it is wide, depending upon how much the corners overlap each other. For other packages the area 3 of the corner covers must be longer in one direction than the other, and when this is the case, covers which are glove-like opposites must be used in forming the package.

Such a package is shown in Fig. '7. The corner covers 24 and 25 are glove-like opposites. The areas 2'l-of these covers which correspond to the areas 3 of the corner covers I in Fig. I are rectangular in shape rather than square. To form these covers the portions 29 and 30 of the covers 24 must be folded oppositely to the corresponding sides of the covers 25. In forming the package, covers 24 and 25 are alternated around the package. They are held in place by the steel shipping bands 3i.

If the material from which the covers are formed is stronger in one direction than the other, as for example corrugated board, the corrugations, etc. will be crossed where adjoining covers overlap, provided that the covers are made with the corrugations lying in one direction and portions 4 andfi are all bent in one direction. For instance, if the arrow in 1 indicates the direction of the corrugations, the corrugations will be crossed as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 6. To obtain the advantages of crossed corrugations when the main areas of the corner covers (corresponding to the area 3 in Figs. 1 to l and 6) are rectangular instead of square, the corrugations must lie the long way of the board for the covers that have their sides turned up and across the short way of the board for the covers that have their sides turned down, or vice versa. This is most easily accomplished by cutting half or the covers out of stock with the corrugations lying parallel to their length and half of them with the corrugations lying parallel to their width. Crossing the corrugations gives a stronger package than if allcorrugations lie in the same direction.

Corner covers 14 and 25 are convenient/for packaging thin slabs offiexible material such as flooring, etc. When handling a package of the flexible slabs the package will have a tendency to bend. In an ordinary carton this bending would be apt to break the carton in the middle. With this package, however, the overlapping sides of the covers will slip with respect to each other when the package is bent. When the package is straightened again the sides of the covers slide back to their original position and the package is not damaged.

Although in most packages it is not ordinarily convenient to predetermine the exact size desired, at time this may be the most convenient procedure. For example, in packaging cloth goods which are to be bulked together in packaging, it may be desirable to guess at the bottom dimensions of the package and then, after filling, telescope the top and bottom more or less to arrive at the required volume. Fig. 8 illustrates the four bottom corners 35 of the package fastened together by glue before being filled. If this bottom is to be filled with cartons, it may be advantageous to fasten only two corner covers together at just the distance to receive a carton. Two other covers similarly stapled, but spaced just enough wider to accommodate the thickness of the walls of the first two covers can be telescoped over the first two covers to form a bottom for a package of adjustable length for packaging any number of the cartons. The package will then be completed by corner covers which may previously be fastened together or may be separate. The top and bottom may be fastened together at the sides of the package, or the whole package may be encircled by steel bands or the like.

Ordinary solid fiber board and corrugated board weaken and disintegrate when Wet. Recently a process has been developed for making them water resistant, and materials treated in this manner are generally referred to as V- Board." A package made of corner covers formed of V-Board will withstand all adverse weather conditions, "and is to be recommended for the export trade. Corners of V-Board may be used on a single carton to protect it, as well as on a plurality of cartons or bulk material.

The corner covers are reusable. They may be reused in reshipping the same material or in the shipment of entirely differem; material which may form a mass of the same or a different size from the mass they originally covered. They need not all be of the same size or composition, and in reuse covers from different sources may be used in covering a package.

The corner covers may be used in many ways and have many advantages. The masses they enclose need not be entirely rectangular, and voids may be filled with paper, etc. in the manner now customary in packaging objects in rectangular boxes and cartons. They may replace pallets or skids for the handling of many small packages as a unit. A variety of uses will suggest themselves to the man skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. The method of packaging a plurality of rectangular cartons using eight stiff one-piece corner covers,'each formed with three mutually perpendicular walls, which comprises forming the cartons into a rectangular mass the three dimensions of which are less than the corresponding dimensionsof the respective corner covers, locating one'of the corner covers over each corner of the mass with the three walls of each corner cover overlapping three walls of adjacent corner covers and conforming the corner covers to the mass by sliding one'relatively to another until each tightly engages the mass, and then fixing the corner covers in this relation to one another and to the rectangular mass, the length of each wall of each corner cover being less by an unpredetermined extent than the dimension of said rectangular mass in the direction in which the wall extends whereby the corner covers overlap to an indefinite extent and are capable of use in packaging rectangular masses of different heights, lengths and widths.

2. The method of using eight stiff one-piece corner covers in the packaging of a plurality of rectangular cartons, each corner cover being formed with three mutually perpendicular walls, Which comprises arranging four of the corner covers to form the bottom and four upstanding walls of the package with the three walls of each corner cover each overlapping at least one wall of an adjacent corner cover, said bottom having an area a little larger in each direction than the area of the mass of the rectangular cartons to be packaged therein, arranging the cartons into said rectangular mass on said bottom, and then increasing the areas said walls overlap one another by shifting said four corner covers closer to one another and against the four walls of said rectangular mass and placing the additional four corner covers snugly over the respective top four corners of the mass with each of the three walls of each corner cover overlapping two of said four upstanding walls and one wall of one of said additional four corner covers, the length of each wall of each corner cover being less by an unpredetermined extent than the dimension of the final package in the direction in which said wall extends, whereby the corner covers overlap to an unpredetermined extent and are capable of use in packaging rectangular masses of difierent heights, lengths and widths, and then applying means to the aforesaid assembly which hold the eight corner covers against the rectangular mass in said relation to one another.

3. A rectangular package formed of a rectangular mass composed of a plurality of rectangular cartons, eight stiff one-piece corner covers located over the eight corners of the mass, and bands Wrapped about the aforesaid cartons and corner covers in planes perpendicular to one another and holding the respective corner covers over the respective corners of the mass and against the walls of the mass adjoining each corner thereof, each corner cover being separate from each of the other corner covers and being formed with three mutually perpendicular walls, the position of each corner cover with respect to each other corner cover being dependent only upon the size and shape of the mass, th three walls of each of the corner covers each overlapping one wall of each of the three adjacent corner covers, with the movement of said overlapping walls with respect to one another limited only by said bands, the length of each of said walls being less by an unpredetermined extentthan the dimension of said mass in the direction in which the wall extends whereby the corner. covers overlap to an unpredetermined extent and are capable of use in packaging rectangular masses of different, heights, lengths andwidths.

References Gited mine file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number I Name Date 795,110 Fonts July 18, 1905 818,257

Kenned Apr. 17,1906

Number Name Date 7 Christensen June 21, 1921 Wagner June 20, 1922 Karst et a1 July 24, 1923 Miller Apr. 23, 1935 Gustafson Oct. 20, 1936 McDonnell June '7, 1938 Magruder et a1. June 20, 1939 Dittmar June. 3, 1.947 Sprolle Nov. 22, 1949 Priepke- Oct. 3, 1950 

